HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Hodgson, C. H. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Hodgson, C. H.

The Treatment of Carrion's Disease with Large Transfusions^1,2,

Carrion's disease (Oroya fever, or verruga peruana) is a disease limited geographically to certain ravines and valleys of the Andes Mountains, principally in Peru, to a limited extent in Ecuador and Colombia and possibly in Bolivia and Chile. The causative organism is Bartonella bacilliformis. According to present knowledge, this organism is transmitted to man by the bite of a night-flying insect, Phlebotomus verrucarum.

There are two phases of clinical importance in this disease. The first phase of the illness may consist of a period of rather mild symptoms, including moderate fever, general malaise, headache and pain in the bones. The patient may make an uneventful recovery from this phase or a very serious illness due to severe anemia may develop. It is believed that the organism directly invades the erythrocytes and eventually causes a rupture of each cell invaded. In the severe anemic form, the organism can be readily identified microscopically on an ordinary blood smear stained with Wright's stain (fig. 1).

¹ Work done in the British American Hospital, Lima, Peru.

² From the Division of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.